Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Ermita to run for Congress

MANILA, Philippines—President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s top Cabinet official is running for Congress and will end up supporting the top provincial candidate of one of the opposition’s presidential aspirants.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita Wednesday announced he was leaving the Cabinet to join the race for the first congressional district of Batangas.

He said he would file his certificate of candidacy today, substituting for the CoC filed earlier by his daughter, incumbent Rep. Eileen Ermita-Buhain.

“I am going to file my certificate of candidacy to substitute for my daughter who is running for Congress in the first district of Batangas,” Ermita, a former congressman, told reporters.

But he said he would probably stay on as executive secretary until the start of the campaign period in March, unless replaced by Ms Arroyo.

Ermita’s continued stay is possible due to the recent Supreme Court decision allowing appointed government officials to keep their posts even after they had filed their CoCs.

In returning to Batangas politics, Ermita will end up supporting the gubernatorial bid of former Gov. Armand Sanchez, who is the official candidate of Sen. Manuel Villar’s Nacionalista Party in the province.

Ermita is supporting former Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, the standard-bearer of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD party.

In a previous interview, he made it clear that the “arrangement” to support the NP’s gubernatorial candidate was limited to Batangas.

It apparently became so after incumbent Gov. Vilma Santos-Recto, the administration’s presumptive gubernatorial candidate, bolted and joined the Liberal Party of Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.